Showman’s northern tour
Lockyer Valley trainer takes show to Top End
THE headline act at this year’s Royal Darwin Show has been a huge success in the big city markets down south.
And with its unique brand of Aussie comedy combined with brilliant horsemanship and tribute to the heroes of the outback, there is no reason to think it won’t continue to impress patrons in the Top End as it takes horse play and cattle mustering to a new level... literally.
But that doesn’t mean the cast and crew of The Rooftop Express Show aren’t just a little nervous about putting on a show for a more “informed” audience in the Top End.
The show’s lead Dave Manchon told Rural Weekly the Darwin shows were the first time the spectacular had made it this far north.
“We do this show in metropolitan areas and the cities and they are an audience that are easy to impress,” Mr Manchon said.
“So, we feel like coming to Darwin we are going to have to have our wits about us and make sure everything is just right because we feel like they will be a bit more of an informed audience.
“But that’s a good thing... everyone will be a little bit more nervous making sure everything is just right and making sure our horses are on point and our cattle are doing the right thing and hopefully we can impress.”
With a show that includes corralling cattle onto the roof of a gooseneck, it would be highly unlikely that any patrons seeing the show would be anything less than impressed.
And according to Mr Manchon, it should also be good for a laugh.
“The show celebrates the heroes of the outback in its own unique way. Basically, it is a fully-scripted comedy show that is a tribute to the Australian Outback,” he said.
“It’s got horsemanship, cattle mustering, it’s got comedy characters that don’t take life too seriously... basically it’s got something for everyone; kids, mums and dads and even for the staunchest of cattlemen... we just hope that it’s going to make Darwin smile.”
One part of the show that Territory cattlemen will relate to is the use of brahman steers.
The brahmans are wrangled and driven top the top of the gooseneck in a feat that will impress even the most cynical of cowboys.
“It took two years to train the first team to do what we do. In fact, we went with brahman cattle because everyone knows they can be difficult... particularly everyone up there in Darwin would know that brahmans can be a little bit temperamental... so we went with the breed that people would know wouldn’t be easy to train.”
Mr Manchon said he now has three teams trained, and the decision to use brahmans has paid off.
“The good thing about the brahmans is that they are trained but they are not that quiet,” he said.
“So, when they roll out of the truck and they are running around in the arena there will be a lot of cattlemen in the audience who will be thinking ‘there is no way this is going to happen’.
“But hopefully, fingers crossed we can wheel them around enough to make them do what they do best, which is jump on the roof of that gooseneck.”
Getting cattle to willingly walk to the top of a truck is a special feat, but it is just the icing on the cake as far as bringing the Rooftop show to Darwin.
With a crew of five, two trucks including the 19m gooseneck, seven horses, three steers and about five dogs, just getting to Darwin has been a feat.
“We are based in the Lockyer Valley in Queensland and it was certainly a challenge trying to get that much livestock and gear up there safely it was 5-6 days of travel. But obviously we want to be seen Australia-wide, so it has to be done.”
Following the Darwin shows the crew will be packing down and heading straight back to Queensland for the Brisbane Ekka, little more than a week later.
“We’ll be pulling out of Darwin on the Sunday to be back in Brisbane the following Monday for rehearsals for a brand-new show that we will be putting on.”
From there, the travels will continue around the country as Mr Manchon and his team take a little bit of the bush to as many people as they can.
The Rooftop Express Show will gallop in to the Darwin Show arena with a daytime show on Thursday, and a daytime show and nighttime spectacular on both Friday and Saturday.
The show is just one of hundreds of attractions that will again draw in huge crowds to the Territory’s premier community event.
Entry tickets for the show which runs from July 26-28, are available now at www.darwinshow.com.au and from the show office.